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The Middle States and the 
Embargo of 1808 



By LOUIS MARTIN SEARS 



%eprinted from the South Atlantic Siuarterly, 'Volume XXI 
fiumber 2, April, 1922 



The Middle States and the Embargo of 1808 

Lours Martin Sears 

Purdue University 

Toward the embargo, as toward many other issues, the 
Middle States assumed a median attitude. The line between 
approval and opposition was not fast drawn. Lying at the 
heart of the older Union, the Middle States had sympathies 
common to both their Northern and their Southern neighbors, 
as well as interests peculiarly their own. Thus their mer- 
cantile marine was a link with New England, while their 
staple crops were a bond with the South. At the same time 
manufacturers already possessed a foothold which made the 
Middle States the natural beneficiary of the stimulus which 
the embargo itself was to bring. 

In respect to a marine and to staple crops, New York was 
typical of the section. To the extent of her great shipping 
interest, her sympathies lay naturally with New England. On 
her long Canadian boundary, moreover, the natural tempta- 
tions to smuggling were multiplied by British inducements to 
evade the embargo. In addition, she was loath as any South- 
ern state to pile up successive crops against a market day 
which might never come. But these discouragements were 
compensated by the advantage, first, of rescuing her shipping, 
and then of harvesting such gains as growing manufactures 
might offer. A strong party machine exercised a steadying 
influence, and DeWitt Clinton, Democratic boss of the State 
of New York, though not a devotee of the Virginia dynasty, 
was not the man to split his party by an open break with the 
national leaders. 

Economic distress was, however, immediate. Early in 
January Moss Kent wrote to his famous brother. Chancellor 
Kent, from Champion in the western part of the State, that 
"this part of the country begin to feel the embarrassing ef- 
fects of the embargo. It has destroyed the market for their 
produce, particularly pot and pearl ashes which is their prin- 
cipal dependence. In case of a war with Great Britain I cal- 



Author 
nm i2 1911 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 153 

culate on emigrating towards the Hudson as my services 
will not, probably, be wanted in this part of the frontier."^ 

But the same general region of Western New York spon- 
sored the most contradictory declarations as to the effect of 
the embargo. A petition from Ontario County dated October 
10, 1808, and signed by 1,365 names laments that "in no 
branch of agricultural pursuit do we find our customary 
profits," and grieves that the bustling industry of a pioneer 
community was giving place to "a constrained and sullen in- 
activity" rendered in no way more endurable by numerous 
evidences of a sudden prosperity across the Canadian line.^ 
Yet in face of this well considered statement of grievances in 
Ontario, a correspondent of Jefferson could write from the 
neighboring county of Niagara that "* * * with respect 
to the embargo little difference of opinion exists in this quar- 
ter. With few exceptions, it is considered, both as to its 
origin and duration the wisest measure, which the administra- 
tion under past and present circumstances could have re- 
sorted and adhered to." 

The more optimistic view prevailed at Albany, for the 
state senate, on the 31st of January, 1809, passed a resolu- 
tion condemning the "* * * most unremitted and repre- 
hensible attempts which are making with uncommon indus- 
try and malignity and by every art of misrepresentation to 
enfeeble and destroy the exertions of the general government 
in vindicating our national rights and honor by endeavoring 
to alienate the affections of the people by opposing the au- 
thority of the laws and by menacing a dismemberment of 
the Union." The legislature declared itself "fully satisfied 
that the conduct of the national government has been cal- 
culated to secure the resources to preserve the peace to main- 
tain the honor and to promote the interests of this country."* 

Wherever the balance lies between these conflicting 
opinions, and it must be admitted that the pessimists had prob- 
ably the weight of argument, there was at least some com- 



' James Kent Papers, Library of Congress. Vol. III. Moss Kent to Chancellor 
Kent, Champion, N. Y., Jan. 10, 1808. 

'Petition of Ontario- County, N. Y., to the U. S. Congress, Oct. 10, 1808. 

* Jefferscnian MSS., Library of Congress. Jan. 26, 1809. 

* Ibid. State of New York Senate, Jan. 31. 1809. 



154 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

pensation in an awakening manufactures. In a season when 
opponents of Jefferson and his policies could see no ray 
of cheer, the pew holders of St. George's Chapel, in New 
York, were sufficiently prosperous to install a $5,000 organ 
built by the Messrs. Geibs, of their own city, who, it may 
be added, had "just completed a very elegant and splendid 
organ which is now erected at Salem in Dr. Barnard's house 
of worship."'' The clothing industry was encouraged by 
premiums on the introduction of merino sheep.^ And the 
raw products thus favored by legislative bounty need not go 
to Connecticut for manufacture in Col. Humphrey's mills, 
as there was at Poughkeepsie a plant, less extensive to be 
sure than the colonel's, which manufactured an article of 
similar quality running in value to eight dollars a yard.'^ Some 
activity was manifest in the iron mines of Northern New 
York, And similar progress was noted in tin manufactures, 
one entrepreneur in the latter urging his claim to patronage 
on the basis that "as every citizen, who by his genius and 
industry, aids in perpetuating the independence of his country, 
has a claim on the community for their patronage, the sub- 
scriber presumes that the liberality of his fellow citizens will 
enable him to persevere in his present undertakings."^ 

While the embargo was modifying the economic life of 
the people, the politicians were not idle. Jefferson no sooner 
made known his intention to retire into private life than 
the question of succession stirred New Yorkers into potential 
opposition to the Virginia Dynasty. Of this movement Gov- 
ernor Clinton was the natural leader,^*^ and James Cheetham 
its chief spokesman. But even Federalists, who would have 
rejoiced at schism, doubted its likelihood,^ ^ for only the closest 
unity among New Yorkers would have withstood the Vir- 
ginia machine, and unity AVas conspicuously lacking. ^As 



^"The Repertory" (Boston), June 17, 1808. 

• Ontario Repository, quoted by Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser. 

' The Diary of Daniel Mulford. Poughkeepsie, Sept. 3, 1808. 

« The Repertory (Boston). Sept. 27, 1808. 

» The Public Advertiser. New York, April 25, 1808. 

^* Wilson Cary Nichoife Papers. Library of Congress. J. Nicholas to W. C. 
Nicholas. Albany, Feb., 1808. "I think there is little doubt that the ruling party 
here [N. Y.] expect something to grow out of inconveniences of the embargo 
favorable to them . etc. 

" The Balance. Hudson, New York, Jan. 5, 1808. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 155 

Chancellor Kent reminded his brother in July, 1808: "The 
news from New York is that the Democrats are all by the 
ears. Cheetham has been publicly denounced by two ward 
general meetings and DeWitt Clinton goes down with him."^^ 
The following philippic against Cheetham bears witness to 
Republican discord in a manner leaving little to the imagina- 
tion. "James Cheetham. This is the wretch who has the un- 
blushing impudence to speak of himself as a man of char- 
acter, of gentlemanly deportment, &c. This same being, who 
on the files of his own paper stands recorded as an unprinci- 
pled calumniator, a registered liar, libeller and assassin of 
private character." From this rather mild beginning, the 
attack warms to some heat, reminding the reader of "how 
lost, even to the honors of the lialter and the gibbet, must the 
man be, who does not stand, in the estimation of the public, 
in point of character, at least, upon a level wnth James Cheet- 
ham. "i^ 

But if there were quarrels among the Republicans, and 
if the Clintons showed no reluctance to capitalize for their 
own benefit the unpopularity of Virginia measures, the party 
nevertheless retained suiificient cohesion to preserve its local 
ascendancy. The governor of the State undertook personally 
to refute the charge that the embargo represented a sub- 
mission to French influence-!^ And the Republicans of the 
county and city of New York adopted strong resolutions ap- 
proving the embargo and promising aid in its enforcement.^^ 
The New York Republicans united in an appeal "to the Re- 
publicans of the United States" to hold together, and de- 
clared their unbounded idignation over the tactics of the 
opposition, serving as they did only to increase the obstinacy 
of the belligerents and to hinder the success of our own 
diplomacy. 1** 



" James Kent Papers, Library of Congress, Vol. III. Chancellor Kent to his 
brother. Albany, July 7, 1808. 

" The Public Advertiser. New York, Augr. 6, 1808. 

" The Palladium. Frankfort, Ky., April 7, 1808. 

^ Ibid. Oct. 20, 1808. This or a similar demonstration was referred to in 
Congress as proof of the loyalty of New York. Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 2078. 

" Ibid., i.e.. The Palladium. Oct. 27, 1808. _ Contrast this, however, with the 
petition of Third Ward Feb. 6, 1809, against interfering with transport of pro- 
visions and necessary supplies. An7ials of Congress, xix, p. 1779. 



156 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

Such solidarity as the Democracy was able to maintain 
was in face of much discontent among the people, especially 
the frontiersmen. And there were numerous violations of 
the embargo and much sympathy for offenders along the 
Canadian boundary. But discontent wl^s not cotifined to 
these informal outlets, however disconcerting. Anti-embargo 
New Yorkers possessed in Barent Gardenier an intrepid 
spokesman, a veritable fire-eater. There was in the man a 
certain nobility of character, well displayed in a duel which 
his rabid utterances provoked. But in an age when duelling 
was rampant, this final test of his convictions was less re- 
markable than his very curious defense of Josiah Quincy for 
refusing to do what he himself had done. He shamed the 
southern leaders for baiting Quincy into a duel which Qiiincy's 
own moral code and that of Massachusetts forbade. In the 
courage to defend another for not fighting, Gardenier showed 
a finer spirit than in his own fearlessness on the field of 
honor. His own qualities, as well as the morbid political at- 
mosphere of the times, are displayed in a speech which 
ascribed our entire foreign policy to French influence, an 
extreme example of the kind of suspicion which poisoned 
the early political controversies of America. "It does appear 
to me, sir, that we are led on, step by step, but by an unseen 
hand. We are urged forward by a sort of spell, to the ruin 
of our country." When Gardenier named Napoleon's as the 
unseen hand a tumult arose, but the speaker was allowed to 
proceed,^^ though not to escape the consequences of his zeal. 
He was challenged by George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, 
severely wounded, and for several weeks was an invalid. 
But he returned to his seat in Congress with ideas unchanged, 
their expression, however, a bit less wild. He talked there- 
after loss of foreign influence and more of domestic injuries, 
defending in particular the northern New Yorkers for their 
traffic with Canada. 

The chief eflfect of Gardenier's outburst had been to 
eliminate him from the reckoning. His place was to some 



"Annals of Congress, xvii., rp- 1652-1656. 
^* Ibid., xviii, pp. 1705-1706. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 157 

extent taken by Josiah Masters, a man of similar views but 
less impetuous expression, who wished the embargo wholly 
removed before the adjournment of Congress in April. His 
remedy for maritime troubles was to arm the merchant vessels 
and let them give a good account of themselves. A show of 
force on our part would bring France and Great Britain both 
to their senses. ^^ 

This policy was not adopted, and when the New York 
delegates returned from the summer recess, they renewed 
their attacks with an hostility which seems excessive, in view 
of other evidences of sentiment in their state. Gardenier, 
once more in harness, declared that the embargo and non- 
importation acts were tantamount to war.2<> But when it 
came to a vote on "Resolved, That the United States can not, 
2vithout a sacrifice of their rights, honor, and independence, 
submit to the late edicts of Great Britain and France,^^ he 
and William Hoge, of Pennsylvania, were the only negatives 
against 136 affirmatives. Perhaps the two were more sincere 
than the 136, for many of these warriors of the council cham- 
ber were soon to be voting for a submission which no disguise 
concealed. 

When the administration asked Congress to put teeth in 
the embargo which would render evasion more difficult and 
dangerous, Josiah Masters commandeered a vengeance "which 
will hurl you down into that detestable and abominable place 
where the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched."^^ 
He credited the executive with good intentions at best, but 
not with wisdom, called the embargo and non-intercourse 
paper threats, and even insinuated, but with a caution inspired 
b}' Gardenier's recent experience, that America was a tool of 
France. -•'^ His caution was perhaps needless, for opposition to 
the embargo in December, 1808, and January, 1809, was less 
dangerous than once it had been. The heresy of one year was 
become the orthodoxy of the next, and Gardenier himself 



^0 Ibid., xviii. p. 2110. 
» Ibid., xix, p. 826 
21 Ibid., xix, p. 853. 
^ Ibid., xix, p. 938. 
"Ibid., xix, pp. 991-993. 



158 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

was less of an outlaw. His was at best, however, a negative 
xnd destructive genius. For constructive statesmanship he 
seems to have shared the general aversion among Federalists 
at this period, but he liked to ferret out weak points in the 
government's position. When sentiment fi:ially veered toward 
a repeal of the embargo and the substitution for it of non- 
intercourse with Great Britain and France only, Gardenier 
ridiculed a policy which rendered shipping precarious and 
then released the ships.--* On this point he carried with him 
but two delegates from New York. The remaining thirteen 
voted with the majority in Congress for a submission which 
should preserve at least the semblance of dignity. 

Less important than New York in every way. New Jersey 
took a less conspicuous position relative to the embargo. But 
the two states had one very striking resemblance in the fact 
that while both remained true to their essential Republicanism, 
and both upheld the state and national tickets of their pa>"ty, 
each found its most eloquent spokesman in the party of the 
opposition. New Jersey's decision in the presidential election 
was correctly forecast early in the summer when a good Demo- 
crat of Trenton asserted that "our political prospect is, in 
this State as favorable as at any past period. The Republi- 
cans to a man, and many federalists, approve the embargo, 
and the correspondent measures. On the subject of the presi- 
dential election, there is no division of sentiment in the Re- 
publican party; all are decidedly for Madison. "^^ But a letter 
in October announcing the victory admits that the contest was 
not easy. "I have just time to inform you, for the gratifica- 
tion of the Whigs of New York, and the dismay of the Tories, 
that REPUBLICANISM has completely triumphed in New 
Jersey, and that in both branches of the legislature, there v.ill be 
a democratic majority. The Tories made a dreadful struggle, 
and we had to combat all the federal lazvyers, British pen- 
sioners and agents ; but thank God, the Whigs were as ready 
to oppose them now as in the American revolution." Of 



^* Ibid., xix, pp. 1262-1263. Jan. 31, 1809. 

» The Universal Gazette. Washington, D. C, July 14, 1808. Extract of a letter 
dated Trenton, N. J. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 159 

fifty-three members in the legislature, the Whigs secured a 
majority of seven. -^ 

Much of the local color in a campaign which led to this 
result is imbedded in some rather spirited doggerel which 
originally graced the pages of the Trenton True American. 

THE EMBARGO 

There's knaves and fools, and dupes and tools, 

Debas'd enough to argue, 
That every ill the people feel, 

Is OM^ing to The Embargo. 

Does some loose tongue, like a clapper hung, 

Delight in constant dinging. 
The Embargo well supplies the bell 

Against which to be ringing. 

Do party men incline to pen 

A false and foolish farr'go, 
No other themes so fruitful seem 

As "Jefferson's d d Embargo." 

To pelf and power would villians soar, 

Mid uproar and confusion; 
With hearts well pleas'd, the Embargo seiz'd 

To work the dire delusion. 

Should Hessian fly our wheat destroy. 

Or granaries crawl with weevil, 
The Embargo's curst in language worst. 

As source of all the evil. 

Does wind or wave or watery grave 

Consign ship crew and cargo, 
'Tis chance but some in visage grum, 

Ascribe it to the Embargo." 

Does cold or heat, or drought or wet. 

Work hay or harvest's ruin, 
'Tis made appear as noon-day clear, 

'Tis all the Embargo's doing. 



» The Public Advertiser. New York, Oct. 18, 1808. To the Editors, Newark, 
Oct. 18. 1808. 



160 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

Or should our crops exceed our hopes, 
Right round about they dare go, 

And in a trice, the lessen'd price 
Is charged upon the Embargo. 

Should boat or ship lose tide or trip 

By gale, or ice, or freshet, 
The Embargo 'tis, puts all amiss, 

And merrily they curse it. 

Do vermin bold on trees lay hold. 

And make their limbs quite bare go, 

'Tis ten to one the mischief done 
Is saddled on the Embargo. 

Has drunken swab or idle drab. 
Become forlorn and needy, 

Both he and she will find a plea, 
"Embargo," always ready. 

Is buck or blade bankrupt in trade, 

By sloth or vice or folly. 
He's not to blame — the fault and shame 

Rests on the Embargo wholly. 

Does some vile knave, his cash to save, 
Pay all his debts with paper ; 

"The Embargo laws" are made the cause, 
And loud he'd rant and vapor. 

But though such knaves and fools and slaves 
Paint it a frightful scare-crow, 

The good and wise their arts despise. 
And cling to the Embargo. 

They know it keeps from pirate's grips. 
Our vessels, crews and cargoes ; 

Which were they lost, would much more cost 
Than half a score Embargoes. 

They know that this most punishes 
The nations that oppress us ; 

While it involves our injur'd selves 
In least and few'st distresses. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 161 

They know that that would cost us more 

Monthly than this does yearly ; 
While every blow some blood must flow 

From kin or friends lov'd dearly. 

Then let who will, to work our ill, 

Against it lie and argue ; 
Columbia's sons, in loudest tones 

Will laud THE WISE EMBARGO. 

— "Jersey Blue."^'' 

The jaded muse may well have winced at verses such as 
these. But when sung, as recommended, to "Yankee Doodle," 
"Moggy Lawder," or the "Vicar of Bray," they no doubt 
aided the chorus to fight the good fight and keep the faith. 
The more solid opinion of New Jersey found its expression 
in the debates of Congress. In James Sloan the State was 
represented by a man of wit; in Henry Southard, by a man 
of sense. Sloan's first sally upon the embargo question was 
in reply to Key, of Maryland. Key had been pouring forth at 
endless length a most lugubrious picture of the sad fate of his 
constituents. Sloan reduced it to an epigram. "I discovered 
only this solid argument in all he said : that the constituents 
of some gentlemen have power to evade the law, while his 
have not."-^ 

Sloan took a higher flight when he attempted an allegory 
along the lines of Josiah Otiincey's famous parable of the 
young man and the birds of paradise. Sloan's dramatis per- 
sonae were an orchard and some pruners. Congress being 
the latter; the country, the former. "* * * suppose I 
employ a man a number of days to regulate my orchard, do 
I authorize him to cut it down? Certainly not. There is a 
power given to commissioners of this city to regulate the 
markets; have they, therefore, a right to prohibit them? I 
contend not ; they are appointed to keep them in order and 
improve them."-" Similarly, Congress was created to regulate 



*' The Independent Chronicle. Boston, Oct. 27, 1808. Quoting from The 
Trenton True American. 

^Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 2126. 
» Ibid., xix, pp. 572-573. 



162 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

and cherish, not to destroy. Yet the embargo was proving the 
great destroyer. And though Sloan voted for it twice, he 
could not stomach its third and revised version.^'* 

Once converted to the opposition, Sloan advanced right 
into the enemy lines and tackled the general himself. Jeffer- 
son in his long career had written much which he doubtless 
believed at the time, but which could hardly be expected to 
fit all occasions. And Sloan dragged forth the "Notes on 
Virginia," written in the eighteenth century, to show that 
Jefferson ought to be acting on its principles in the nine- 
teenth.^^ The method was clever, but hardly fair. 

With much less pretense of rhetoric, but more of op- 
timism and constructive thinking. Southard called attention 
to the good which the embargo had already accomplished, to 
the infant industries it had established, now "rapidly progress- 
ing to perfection," and to the probability that it would have 
accomplished its whole purpose in six months if the Ameri- 
can people had given it loyal support. But this they had with- 
held, and in Southard's judgment it would not pay to prolong 
the experiment. He even preferred March to June as the date 
for its repeal. •''- It was men like Southard, friends of the 
embargo, not its enemies, who finally sealed its doom. 

Among the Middle States, Delaware was the most hostile 
to the embargo. There was, of course, within the state a 
democratic faction, and "a very numerous and respectable 
Meeting of the Democratic-Republican Citizens of New Castle 
County" drew up as late as September 3. 1808, resolutions 
highly laudatory of the embargo. -"^^ fhe faithful at Wilming- 
ton even went so far, in February, 1809, as to assure Thomas 
Jefferson that "had such honorable generous principles [as 
theirs] universally predominated the shackles imposed upon 
our commerce would before this, we believe, have been re- 
moved, and peace and prosperity would again have resumed 
their sway over our country. "^^ 



»Ibid., xix, p. 573. 

^ Ibid.. x:x, p. 928. Dec. 27, 1808. 

™ Ibid., xix, pp. 1307-1308. 

^' Broadsides. Library of Congress, vol. 8. 

" Jeflersonian MSS. Library of Congress. Wilmington, Delaware, Feb. 2, 1809. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 163 

Testimony such as this is offset, however, by an em- 
phatic denmiciation of the embargo signed by 456 citizens of 
Smyrna and its vicinity, prepared after the law^ had been in 
effect over a year, as well as by the more significant fact that 
the entire delegation from Delaware consistently opposed the 
embargo in Congress. ^^ Senator White opposed the original 
act of embargo."" His colleague, Bayard, joined him in op- 
posing the various amendments designed to render it effec- 
tive. 2''' And in the House, Van Dyke, the sole delegate from 
Delaware, was too hostile to any sort of restriction even to 
vote for the act which repealed the embargo. Delaware was 
a commercial center and a stronghold of Federalism. She 
could not anticipate the boom in manufactures which was to 
compensate her neighbor of Pennsylvania for present suffer- 
ings, but she did realize that the embargo was a God-send 
to Federalism, which had been perishing for a real issue with 
the Republicans. Delaware was the little man with the one 
idea. Pennsylvania was too rich and varied to be so con- 
fined. 

Even as the Middle States were the pivot for the entire 
seaboard, so their own key-stone was the state of Penn- 
sylvania. As the Middle States decided, so went the Union. 
Theirs was the balance of power between North and South. 
The balance within the balance belonged to Pennsylvania, 
and at the heart of Pennsylvania lay the decisive influence of 
Philadelphia. The conflict of sentiment in Philadelphia offers, 
therefore, an important clew to the sources of national action 
throughout the period of the embargo. 

It is unfortunate, therefore, that at this point, full justice 
cannot be done to the part played by Pennsylvania in the em- 
bargo. But the reader who is interested will find a some- 
what detailed discussion of this subject, more particularly 
as it concerned Philadelphia, in a separate study by the pres- 
ent writer, only the conclusions of which may here be sum- 
marized.^^ 



^5 Ibid. Petition from Smyrna, Delaware. 

^ Annals of Congress, xviii, p. 51. For hostile speeches by him, see also Ibid. 
xi.x, pp. SS and 59. 
^ Ibid, xviii, p. 63. 
/*» "Philadelphia and the Embargo of 1808," in The Quarterly Journal of Econ- 



164 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

In so far as Philadelphia was rich and commercial, a 
proper nursery for Federalists, her merchants were neces- 
sarily hostile to the embargo. But their petitions against its 
enforcement proving unavailing, they shared in the general 
stagnation of trade; and save as they were individually able 
to recoup their fortunes by ventures outside their usual field, 
they and all the seamen whom they employed felt the pinch of 
the times. 

But as commerce declined, manufactures rose, for in the 
very nature of things a measure so ruinous to the one was 
stimulating to the other. And nowhere was this stimulus 
more promptly felt than in Philadelphia. Testimony from 
the most respectable sources confirms the almost universal air 
of prosperity which pervaded the city, a final proof of its 
authenticity being the steadfast loyalty of both city and state 
to the Republican party and the leadership of Thomas Jeffer- 
son. 

The administration foimd, in fact, a needed support at 
the hands of Pennsylvanians in Congress, who during many 
months sustained the embargo by substantial majorities, and 
did not yield to non-intercourse as a substitute until it was 
apparent that the cause of the embargo w^as hopeless. Thus 
economic prosperity encouraged political constancy, and 
served to hold in the Democratic household of faith a state 
whose defection would have been peculiarly embarrassing 
at a time when Federalism was regaining so much lost ground 
in New England. 

Conditions in Maryland bore some striking resemblances 
to those in Pennsylvania, though in the aggregate they were 
probably less favorable. As in Pennsylvania, the impetus 
given to manufactures was marked. At the very outset, a 
committee headed by William Patterson, of Baltimore, in- 
vited all persons who possessed any knowledge of cotton 
or woolen manufactures to aid in turning this to practical 
account."'^-' A considerable demand arose for shares in a 
company projected for the purpose.^^ The zeal for manu- 



** Republican Watch Tower. New York, Jan. 8, 180S. From Baltimore, Jan. 2. 
<• The Independent Chronicle. Boston, Feb. 25, 1808. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 165 

factures extended to shoes.^^ Wool carding also came into its 
own.'*^ And the foundations were laid for extensive enter- 
prise. 

How the commercial community of Maryland responded 
to the embargo is illustrated by two letters of William Pat- 
terson, written a little more than six months apart to Wilson 
Cary Nicholas, a Virginia delegate in Congress. In May he 
declared that "* * * every thinking man in the com- 
munity be him [sic] Republican or Federalist sees and knows 
the propriety and necessity of the embargo, yet all will not give 
it their support and many will try to mislead the ignorant 
in order to give ground to the Federal party, it is very de- 
sirable that it should be continued until the powers at war 
shall feel the necessity of changing their conduct towards 
us, but I have my doubts and fears that the people of this 
country have not svifficient virtue and perseverance to wait 
this event — all the vessels belonging to my House have com- 
pleted their voyages and are now in port to the number of 
twelve in all. most of the vessels in the East India trade have 
returned so that there is now very little American property 
at sea."43 

It thus appears that by May, of 1808, Patterson and the 
great merchants of his class had already experienced whatever 
benefits the embargo had to offer. What followed was chiefly 
its burdens. And these drew from Patterson in December 
the complaint that "it is every day becoming more and more 
unpopular and if continued will bring about a revolution in 
the government and perhaps a Civil War, at any rate it must 
throvv' the government into the hands of the Federalists."^^ 
For an influential Democrat writing to one of his own party 
in Congress, Patterson makes the rather astonishing admission 
that "circumstanced as we are it is vain to talk of national 
honor for that has been sacrificed in too many instances 



■" The Baltimore Evening Post, May 7, 1808. 

■*^ Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daih Advertiser, Aug. 24, 1808. Inserted 
Aug. 12, 1808. 

*2 W. C. Nicholas Papers, Library of Congress. Wm. Patterson to W. C. Nich- 
olas, May 11, 1808. 

** Ibid., same to same. Dec. 1, 1808. 



166 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

already and it is now too late to regain it. Unanimity and 
the safety of the country are now the great objects to be con- 
sidered."^^' 

Severe as this indictment appears, it is nevertheless the 
judgment of a friend. The real virus of mercantile opinion 
found vent in personal fiings at Jefferson,""^ while extreme 
Federalists in Baltimore went even so far as to rejoice at 
threatening secession in New England. The following "com- 
munication" to a Baltimore newspaper indicates at least an 
attempt to feel out the position of Maryland Federalists with 
reference to such a contingency. 

"The political intelligence from the great Atlantic States, 
if it do not warrant an entire confidence that the golden princi- 
ples of FEDERALISM have revived in full vigor and health, 
at least instructs us that the fatal Embargo law threatens fear- 
ful ruin to the tottering cause of democracy. The good and 
powerful portion of the people are prepared constitutionally 
to rise up in their strength against the destructive policy of 
our rulers. Let democracy, and her treacherous hand-maid, 
French Influence stand aghast, brooding over their own 
iniquities. The guilty may escape retributive vengeance for 
a while, but Justice will overtake them yet. Though majestic 
in her mien, and bold in her approach, she will steal anon 
upon her trembling victim, and point with peculiar emphasis 
at the faithless friends of their country."-*' 

But the most formidable expression of revolt was the 
declaration of the Baltimore Federal Republican concerning 
"Mr. Giles's Bill," in which the doctrines of the Virginia res- 
olution were invoked to show that by exercising powers never 
delegated by the states, the federal government had dis- 
solved the civil compact. The Giles Bill was a force bill, ac- 
cording to the Republican, and the government would do 
well to remember that "a law which is to be enforced at the 



*'' W. C. Nicholas Papers, Library of Congress. Wni. Patterson to W. C. 
Nicholas, Dec. 1, 1808. 

■•" The North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser. Baltimore, June 6, 
1808. Quoting Jackson's Marine Register for June 3rd in a comment upon the 
failure of a single ship that day to enter or leave New York, Philadelpliia or Bal- 
timore. "We shall be consoled, however, for all this temporal privation, by lec- 
tures on the "Revolt of Nations From the Empire of Morality" by a PHILOS- 
OPHER, who has not violated more than one-half of the Decalogue." 

<< Ibid., May 16, 1808. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 167 

point of the bayonet will bring on a struggle which may ter- 
minate in the overthrow of the government. Our rulers are 
answerable for the issue."^^ 

Maryland representatives in Congress were more sensitive 
to the commercial disadvantages of the embargo than to its 
manufacturing advantages. This was the more natural among 
men who, living outside of their state, could not witness in 
person the awakening in cotton, woolen, and other manu- 
factures ; while commercially they were well aware that 
Maryland was in a situation to bear the full brunt of the 
embargo. For unrestricted commerce her location was advan- 
tageous. But when the embargo sealed her front door, she 
had no back door for escape. Northern New England and 
New York had a Canadian outlet. Transalleghany and the 
Far South touched the Mississippi and Florida, with their 
lucrative possibilities for smuggling. It was quite otherwise 
with Maryland. And her isolation moved her to self pity.^^ 
Perhaps, though, a hundred per cent administration would 
have left no loop-hole for the 100,000 barrels of flour, which 
John Randolph declared with gusto were smuggled out of 
Baltimore.^^ 

The argument for uniformity would have gained in dignity 
if clothed in an appeal for uniform self-sacrifice and pa- 
triotism. But Key reduced it to an absurdity by basing his 
opposition to the embargo on the inability of his constituents 
to evade it.^^ 

Like Josiah Quincy, Key was an advocate of laissez-faire. 
He would allow the merchants to manage their own business, 
trusting them to impose a voluntary embargo whenever risks 
outran profits. And if the merchants themselves were not 
clever enough to determine this, the insurance companies 
would do it for them. "I would, therefore, confide to them 
the commerce of our country in the exportation of our pro- 



*" The Connecticut Courant. Jan. 18, 1809. Quoting from the Baltimore Fed- 
eral Republican. 

*•'' A rivals of Congress, xviii : p. 1706. Philip B. Key: "Our laws should be 
uniform ; at present large portions of our country have an outlet for commerce 
and the embargo law operates as a bounty to that part of the community at the 
expense of the remainder." 

^ Ibid., xviii. p. 2239. 

«J6td., xviii, p. 2119. 



168 The South Atlantic Quarterly 

duce, unshackled by an embargo law."^^ Hq anticipated events 
by a year when, in despair of justice from either France or 
England, he recommended commerce only with the rest of 
the world.^'* But with a curious inconsistency, though he de- 
clared war to be preferable to embargo, he refused his vote 
to the act enabling Jefferson during the summer recess of 
Congress to suspend the operation of the embargo, subject to 
certain contingencies. "I cannot consent," said Key, "that 
the destinies of my country, that its laws shall be suspended 
on the will of any individual, however preeminent in virtue, 
dignified in station, or covered with the mantle of public 
opinion. The more his merit, the greater the danger."^^ 

When Congress reconvened, Maryland spoke wath more 
than one voice. S. Smith took the cheerful view that Liver- 
pool would soon be clamoring for saner counsels in Britain. 
On our side, he declared that border smuggling was less ex- 
tensive than it was rumored to be. Altogether, he bade the 
Senate be of good heart.^^ Key, however, continued in the 
voice of lamentation. Picturing the entire Union in a com- 
petition of suffering, he demanded the prize for Maryland. 
In this he represented commercial sentiment, for in Maryland, 
unlike Pennsylvania, commerce cast the deciding vote as 
against manufactures, which, however promising, were still 
immature. And that vote, whether expressed in the cor- 
respondence of William Patterson or the furious diatribes of 
the Federalist press, became increasingly hostile to the em- 
bargo. 

In reaching this point of view, Maryland was in harmony 
with her sisters. With distinct individual differences as to 
the incidence of the embargo, the states of the Middle Group 
shared in varying degree the stimulus to manufactures and the 
demoralization of commerce imposed by the times. But 
collectively the burden of their experience impelled them to 
vote out the embargo, and to vote in its emasculated substi- 
tute of non-intercourse with Great Britain and France. In 
vain did friends of the embargo point to its deadly effect upon 



"Ibid., xviii, p. 2122. 

" Ibid., xviii, p. 2123. 

^ Ibid., xviii, pp. 2124-212S. 

"'Ibid., xix, pp. 147, ISO. 159. 



Middle States and Embargo of 1808 169 

Great Britain. ^"^ In vain were smugglers and traitors held up 
to the execration of tlieir fellow citizens/'^ Public opinion, 
which had sustained the embargo in its initial stages, ana 
upheld it with tolerable firmness through nine months of in- 
creasing pressure, even to the enforcing act of January, 1809, 
finally succumbed. As the embargo grew more intolerable and 
its success appeared less certain, the pendulum swung from 
rigid government control to extreme individual freedom. And 
the readiest means was sought for restoring our commerce 
without too blatant a confession of defeat. 

This drift in opinion the Middle States shared with their 
neighbors, and in the vote of February 27, 1809, which finally 
overthrew the embargo and replaced it by a non-intercourse 
act, the Middle States cast the following ballot : New York, 
13 to 3 and 1 not voting ; New Jersey, 5 to ; Delaware, to 1 ; 
Pennsylvania, 10 to 6 with 2 not voting; Maryland, 7 to 1. 
Ohio cast her single vote in the negative. ^^ 

The Middle States thus spoke decisively. Theirs was the 
balance of power. And without their sufFrance, the embargo 
could not endure. One may regret, but not condemn their 
decision. The embargo was a sublime experiment carried out 
under impossible conditions. A stronger nationalism was 
needed if the country were to give the unanimous support es- 
sential to success. In Congress itself, a diflferent type of 
statesmanship was required than what passed current in 1809. 
The practical politician governed then as now and made sad 
work of it. Yet in so far as the nation did uphold it, the 
embargo pointed toward a brighter world where wars should 
be no' more. Viewed as a commercial device for rescuing 
shipping and humbling a foe, the embargo was sordid enough. 
Viewed as a substitute for war, it assumes the dignity of 6ne 
of the most enlightened plans and consistent efforts ever di- 
rected toward world peace. But amid the losses and discom- 
forts of the time, it was not easy to see or to keep the vision, 
and if the Middle States, like their sisters, failed at last to do 
so, they deserve more credit for what they did than censure 
for what thev failed to do. 



" The Palladium. Frankfort, Ky., Oct. 27, 1808. 

"Ibid., Aug. 18, 1808. Quoting The National Intelligencer. 

''^ Antials of Congress, xix, p. 1541. 



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